Chapter 5
Damien ushered Cam, Annalise, and Alanzo into the family room and watched in amusement as Alanzo brimmed with excitement. He kept tugging on Annalise’s arm and looking around with wide eyes.
“I’ll make sure you all get home or to your cars. I’m sorry for kidnapping y’all.” Damien chuckled.
“We took the bus, so it’s fine,” Annalise said as she sat down on the buttery leather couch.
“We Uber’d,” Cam muttered.
Damien noticed that his bubbly personality had fizzled out slightly, and he opened his mouth to ask if he was okay, but Annalise spoke first.
“What happened back there?”
Damien focused on her. “Crazy fans is all. It happens a lot after the games. Rumors spread about weapons or fights and it’s procedure for the players to vacate the building during those instances, just in case.”
Cam stiffened and looked like he was about to fall out. Damien put a hand on his shoulder. “Do you want to sit?”
Cam nodded as if he was in a daze and sat down slowly across from Annalise and Alanzo in an oversized chair.
All eyes were on him, and when he noticed, he offered a small smile.
“Sorry,” he whispered. “Kenna doesn’t really do well with big crowds.
It’s my fault she freaked out. I forced her to come today. ”
Annalise peered at him and then gently spoke. “It seems you aren’t doing all that well yourself, baby.”
Cam’s watery eyes lifted to Annalise. “I just need to make sure Kenna is okay.”
Damien watched the exchange, perplexed, but something in him told him that right now was not the time to pry. Instead, he said, “How about I order some pizza for us? It’s the least I can do since I kidnapped y’all.”
Unable to contain his excitement any longer, Alanzo pumped his fist up into the air and cheered. “Yeah! Gigi, did you hear that? Pizza with Damien Blaze!”
“I heard, chile, now sit down and act like you got some sense.”
“It’s okay. If you don’t mind, I can actually show him to the playroom right around the corner. My daughter used to be in there for hours on end, but she thinks she’s too grown for it lately. What do you say, lil man?”
“Can I?” Alanzo asked, whirling around to face his grandmother.
“That’s fine. Just mind your manners, Zo.” She cut her eyes at him in the way only women who had given birth could do.
He nodded before rushing toward Damien and grabbing his large hand.
Damien smiled down at the little boy, loving his energy.
It made him realize how badly he wanted more kids.
He had missed out on so much with Skylar, and that was something he always struggled with.
He wanted more children to fill his home, and he wanted to be there for it all.
He just prayed Skylar didn’t resent him for it.
Damien saw Annalise move over to the end of the couch, so she was close to where Cam sat in the chair. He knew she would comfort him. It was clear he was trying to remain strong, but Damien had learned long ago that there was nothing wrong with leaning on people when he wasn’t at his best.
As soon as he opened the door for the playroom, Alanzo took off. There were all kinds of toys, tablets, and video games in the room, and Damien knew he would be content for quite some time.
“You good? You need anything?” Damien asked. Alanzo shook his head as he found an electronic train set and fiddled with the controls. Damien chuckled. “We’ll be just down the hall, okay? Someone will come get you when the pizza is here.”
Alanzo nodded once again but didn’t verbally respond as he fell into play mode.
Damien kept the door cracked before he pulled his phone out of his pocket to order pizza. The doorbell rang as he tapped away on his phone, and he absentmindedly walked toward it. Before he could even touch the doorknob, it opened, and his best friend of twenty years poked his head into the house.
Dax’s smile was wide as hell when his eyes landed on Damien. “Boy, I wondered where you ducked off to. Why you ain’t answer my texts?”
Damien’s brows pulled together as he swiped into his messages and realized he had a couple of texts from Dax. “My bad, man. Shit got kind of tense for a minute after the threat back at the game.”
Dax stepped fully into the house and walked toward the family room like he owned the place. That was just how they rocked though. If Damien had been at Dax’s house, he would have done the same thing.
They met at eighteen in college and had been locked in ever since.
They were drafted to separate teams right out of college, but they remained friends and had a friendly competition throughout those years.
Finally, they both found their home with their hometown team, The Infernos, and their contracts had them locked in ever since.
While Damien had made his retirement official and announced it months ago, Dax felt like he still had another season or two in him.
“Tense how? That ain’t nothing new for us.”
“Right, but the meet and greet people I was with?—”
Dax stopped his stride when he made it to the living room, and Damien could easily see why. Jendaya and Kenna were back from the bathroom. Kenna had puffy eyes, but she was still as beautiful as ever.
Dax grinned at her and cleared his throat. “D, you ain’t tell me we had company.”
Damien slapped his friend on the back of the head. “I have company. You don’t. I was just about to order pizza. You staying?”
“I don’t know. Are you staying, pretty lady?” Dax asked, looking back at Kenna.
Still fresh from her meltdown, she simply stared at Dax like a deer caught in headlights.
“Dax, go on somewhere and leave that girl alone.” Jendaya spoke up as she glared at Dax, who sucked his teeth.
“Don’t be rude, big head. Someone introduce me to our new friends.” Dax looked around the room.
Damien was the only one present who knew how Dax and Jendaya bickered like siblings, and the last thing he wanted was to hear that shit at the moment, so he smoothly intervened.
“Dax, this is Ms. Annalise, Cam, and Kenna. Ms. Annalise’s grandson is also here playing in the playroom.”
“And where we meet them at? It ain’t like you to pick up strays.” He glanced at the guests. “No offense.”
Damien shook his head and clapped Dax on the shoulders. “Please excuse my best friend. He didn’t have any home training.”
Dax’s face twisted up. “I’m telling my mama that.”
“Go ’head. She won’t believe you,” Damien challenged. It was true. Dax’s mother, Ms. Rivers, loved her some Damien. She believed nothing foul or rude could ever come out of his mouth. She would absolutely believe Damien over Dax, the jokester, any day.
Before Damien and Dax could start their shit talking, Jendaya stepped in. This was how they operated. They knew when and how to defuse, but they also knew how to push each other’s buttons. The perks from knowing each other for so long.
“We met them at the meet and greet. There was an… issue… and Damien thought it was best to bring them back here.”
“What kind of issue?” Dax asked as he moved toward the couch where Kenna sat and sat next to her, comfortably spreading his arms across the back of the couch.
Damien saw Kenna shrink away from him, and he automatically moved to save her. It was the perfect excuse to be close to her again anyway. He wanted to make sure she was okay.
Damien slid between Dax and Kenna, bumping him out of the way, before leaning down and whispering to Kenna. “You good?”
She visibly relaxed and nodded her head shyly.
“What kind of issue?” Dax probed as he looked at Kenna and Damien curiously.
“Boy, you never knew how to read a damn room,” Jendaya snapped.
“What I do?” he asked as he looked around at all the grim faces.
“It’s okay.” Kenna finally spoke up and looked around at everyone before her gaze landed on Cam. I’m okay , she mouthed before addressing the room again. “I’m sorry for what happened back there.”
Damien watched as she glanced at Jendaya, who immediately spoke up. “You don’t owe an explanation, Kenna.”
Jendaya gave Kenna a meaningful look, causing Damien to wonder what took place in the bathroom. Luckily for him, Kenna wasn’t going to keep him waiting in suspense.
“I know I don’t, but I want to. I think you helped me realize that it’s okay to talk about it.” Kenna took a deep breath and said, “Cam and I are survivors of the?—”
“Bairwood High shooting! That’s where I recognize you from,” Dax interrupted.
“I thought you looked familiar. I had a cousin who went to that school… he didn’t make it.
I watched a lot of that coverage back then and remember you from some of the footage and interviews that happened after.
Your eyes. I remember thinking they were too pretty to have seen so much violence. ”
Damien’s head spun. He wanted to kick Dax for flirting with Kenna, but he knew it would be useless.
That was just how he was. He would never cross any lines once Damien made it known that Kenna was not up for grabs, but he would absolutely still flirt.
He learned that long ago when he and Jendaya were dating.
She always shot him down and put him in his place, though, which formed a mutual respect between them that pretty quickly turned into a sibling-like bond.
His irritation toward Dax settled into the back of his mind, though, as it all clicked for him.
Kenna’s reserved nature and complete meltdown back at the arena.
Cam barely keeping it together. The trauma they must have experienced…
he remembered when it happened. It wasn’t long after he was drafted, and one of his first large donations was to the survivors of the shooting, which weren’t that many.
He couldn’t believe he sat next to one of them and another was just across the room from him.